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1 HUMA1000 Cultures and Values (L1): Happiness, Self-interest, and Morality Course outline Lecturing faculty: Kim-chong Chong, Professor, Division of Humanities Writing workshop teaching faculty: Language Instructors from Center for Language Education (CLE) Canvas online discussion coordinator: Winnie Pun, Instructional Assistant, Division of Humanities Course Description: This section will discuss issues such as the relation between pleasure, happiness and the good life and the meaning of life; whether self-interest is the only motivation for action; the possibility of moral conflict and how these may be resolved; cultural relativism and subjectivism; the moral theories of Utilitarianism and Kantian ethics. These issues will allow students to reflect upon a range of values in both their personal and public lives involving happiness, self-interest, and morality. The method adopted for this section is philosophical. Students will be taught how to reflect upon moral issues from the perspective of philosophical analysis. Course highlights: 3-credit HUMA common core course with no exam but one essay, Canvas online peer discussion, and 2 quizzes. Learn how to convince others in writing. Learn more about three specific values: happiness, self-interest and morality. The objectives of the course are two-fold: (1) For communicative capacity building through humanities knowledge and (2) For enrichment of values and perspectives corresponding to the mission and vision of UST. The course encompasses three interrelated strands of learning: a) Lectures on specific humanities perspective and values; b) Writing workshops to sharpen communication skills for the essay; and c) Canvas online discussion for exchange and comments among peers on lectures and essays. 1

3 What students are expected to do: Assigned readings for lectures: There are assigned readings for the lectures on the three values. Students must read them in order to follow the lectures. The in-class quizzes will test their comprehension of these readings and the lecture contents. Participating in lectures and the quizzes: Lectures will introduce to students the basic concepts and theories regarding the three values: happiness, self-interest and morality. Students are expected to do the assigned readings, follow the lectures closely, and participate in activities during the lectures. They will need to connect what they learn in the lectures with what they do in the online discussion forum, the writing workshops, and the essay writing. This connection is graded. There are two quizzes to assess how much they have acquired from the assigned readings and the lectures. Participating in the Writing Workshops: From the Fall Term 2015, the Writing Workshops will be presented in two strands: online and classroom. The online strand consists of four blocks of material, each of which contains tasks to check that you have understood the content. These blocks have been designed to prepare you for the five classroom workshops, held in alternate weeks. If you do not complete the online part of each workshop, you will not be prepared for the classroom part of the workshop and you will not gain the maximum benefit from your time in the classroom. So long as you work through the online strand of the workshop before you attend the classroom session, you can do the online work whenever and wherever you like. A detailed schedule of the classroom workshops is available on Canvas. The writing workshop part of HUMA1000 has been completely redesigned by a team from the Center for Language Education, the Division of Humanities and CELT, the University s specialist center for teaching and learning. Both the online and the classroom strands of the workshops have been designed to help you write a good academic persuasive essay in response to one of the essay prompts given by the member of HUMA faculty in charge of your lectures. You will need to make use of what you have learned from lectures and assigned readings in the writing workshops. Full details of how to follow this part of the course will be given in the orientation tutorial in week 1, 2 or 3 of the Fall Term. 3

4 Since this is not an English language course, your English proficiency alone will not determine how well you do in this course. However, poor English proficiency may affect your performance because you will be assessed on the ideas and the argument in your essay. Your English proficiency affects how well you can express these ideas and construct an argument. If you are a first year student from Hong Kong and you obtained only a level 3 pass at HKDSE or a level 4 pass with any sub-score lower than 4, our experience suggests you will find it difficult to do well in the course at the moment. We recommend that you wait and take HUMA 1000 after you have completed and passed LANG 1002 and LANG 1003 with at least a grade C-. Further information about the level of English proficiency you need to do well in the course is available on Canvas. HUMA1000 是 一 門 人 文 學 課 程, 而 不 是 英 語 語 言 課 程, 因 此, 你 的 英 語 語 言 水 平 並 不 能 單 獨 決 定 你 在 這 門 課 程 的 表 現 然 而, 薄 弱 的 英 語 能 力 卻 會 影 響 你 的 表 現, 因 為 課 程 將 依 據 你 在 論 文 寫 作 中 所 表 達 的 思 想 和 論 點 來 進 行 測 評 你 的 英 語 語 言 水 平 則 會 對 你 在 表 達 觀 點 和 構 建 論 據 方 面 產 生 影 響 如 果 你 是 香 港 本 地 的 一 年 級 學 生, 同 時 你 在 香 港 中 學 文 憑 考 試 (HKDSE) 只 達 到 3 級, 或 者 達 到 4 級 卻 有 任 何 一 卷 低 於 4 級, 根 據 以 往 經 驗, 在 現 階 段 修 讀 HUMA1000 對 你 而 言 會 有 一 定 難 度 我 們 建 議 你 在 完 成 並 以 至 少 C- 的 成 績 通 過 LANG 1002 和 LANG 1003 兩 門 課 程 以 後 再 開 始 修 讀 HUMA1000 其 他 與 修 讀 HUMA1000 相 關 的 英 語 語 言 水 平 的 進 一 步 資 料 已 上 載 至 Canvas 以 供 參 考. Canvas online discussion: Students will take part in online discussion forum on Canvas to exchange among their peers any feelings, ideas, and thoughts, in response to questions about the lectures and assigned readings as posted by the faculty. Questions are open-ended and there is no model answer to look for. The purposes are to exchange ideas, listen to others, and learn from each other. Term essay: Each student will choose an essay topic from those prescribed and write a persuasive essay of around 1000 words in academic English. Students need to show in their essays that they have made use of what they have learned from the lectures and assigned readings. The first draft must be submitted on time by a prescribed deadline to ensure that students can receive timely feedback from their language instructor and be assessed on their efforts in the process of writing the essay. The final version of the essay must show evidence of revision in response to feedback from the language instructor. Essays must be submitted through the Canvas course site, which will be checked automatically through Turnitin both online and among peers. Please note that there is a policy on late submission. 4

5 Further rubrics and guidelines about the class assessments and activities can be found in the course site on Canvas. Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) This course has defined ethics as the specific aspect of humanities perspective to form the contents of the Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs). Within this framework, three basic values will be explored: happiness, self and society. ILO#1: Communicate in writing persuasively and effectively. ILO#2: Demonstrate a humanities perspective in communication. ILO#3: Question assertions related to humanities, especially culture and values. ILO#4: Show appreciation of different views and contribute to constructive feedback. ILO#5: Apply existing empirical and logical skills to make independent judgments about personal values and priorities. ILO#6: Appreciate the complexity of: happiness, self-interest and morality. Course Schedule and Readings (Lecture content and readings are subject to changes) Week 1 Lecture on Sep 2, 2015 Introduction: General overview of the course and topics to be covered, with brief mention of the issues, activities, and expectations. Week 2 Lecture on Sep 9, 2015 Pleasure, happiness and the good life : What do we mean by the good life? In a consumer society, this is taken to connote glamour and wealth. This leads to questions about pleasure and happiness, whether these are equivalent, and what other values there are that would realistically make up a good life. Assigned reading: Chong, K.C. (2007). The Good Life: Moral Education in a Consumer Society. In C. Tan & K.C. Chong (Eds.), Critical Perspectives on Values Education in Asia (pp.19-29). Singapore: Pearson/Prentice-Hall. 5

6 Supplementary reading: Singer, P. (1993). The Ultimate Choice. In How Are We To Live? Ethics in an age of self-interest (pp.1-21). Melbourne: The Text Publishing Co. Week 3 Lecture on Sep 16, 2015 The meaning of life: What do we mean when we talk of the meaning of life? What gives meaning to human life as a whole? What gives meaning to an individual life? Assigned reading: Tao, J. (2006). The meaning of life: What is it all about? In J. Tao and H. Yan (Eds.) Meaning of Life (pp.1-17). Singapore: McGraw Hill. Supplementary reading: Chong, K.C. (2004). Religious Truth and the Meaning of Life. In K.C. Ban, A. Pakir, and C.K. Tong (Eds.), Imagining Singapore (pp ). Singapore: Marshall Cavendish. Week 4 Lecture on Sep 23, 2015 Self-interest: Is self-interest the only motivation of human beings? What is meant by self-interest? What is meant when people talk of the selfish gene? Assigned reading: Rachels, J. and Rachels, S. (2010). Psychological Egoism. In The Elements of Moral Philosophy (pp.62-69). Boston: McGraw Hill, 6 th edition. Supplementary reading: Yung, Y.Y. and Yan, K.T.H. (2006). What can evolution and genetic theories tell us about the meaning of life. In J. Tao and H. Yan (Eds) Meaning of Life (pp ). Singapore: McGraw Hill. Week 5 - Lecture on Sep 30, 2015 Moral Conflict: The possible conflicts between moral values. In Confucianism, precedence is given to family relations. Is this compatible with the values of impartiality and justice? We look at examples of similar conflicts in the West. Assigned reading: Sandel, M. (2010). Selected paragraphs from Chapter 1 and Chapter 9 (Runaway Trolley and other examples). In Justice What s The Right Thing To Do? (pp.21-30, pp ). London: Penguin. Also, see video on Youtube: Justice What s The Right Thing To Do? Episode 01 6

8 Hill, 6 th edition. No Supplementary reading. Week 11 Lecture on Nov 11, 2015 Kantian Ethics: the idea of absolute moral rules and respect for persons. Assigned reading: Rachels, J. and Rachels. S. (2010). Chapter 9, Are There Absolute Moral Rules?, and Chapter 10, Respect for Persons. In The Elements of Moral Philosophy (pp ). Boston: McGraw Hill, 6 th edition. No supplementary reading. Week 12 Lecture on Nov 18, 2015 Does it pay to be moral? This is a question that has concerned Western moral philosophy from its early beginnings. It is raised, for instance, in Plato s The Republic. Woody Allen s movie, Crimes and Misdemeanors, asks the question from another perspective: Does it pay to be immoral? The movie raises disturbing questions about the objective existence of morality. Is morality carved in stone? If not, can one commit a crime like murder and get away scot free? Reading (movie): Woody, A. (Director). (1989). Crimes and Misdemeanors [Motion picture]. Week 13 2 nd Quiz on Nov 25,

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